@FinancialTimes Infections of the Over 60s is still rising fast in the latest data. Nothing more than the faintest glimmer of a turning point
@FinancialTimes The same with admissions in England, which have quadrupled since early December
@FinancialTimes Bed occupancy then goes up unless discharges (recoveries and deaths) are greater than admissions - there is quite some time before these peak
@FinancialTimes And with numbers in ICUs far above normal winters, the NHS is facing crisis conditions - from @jburnmurdoch
UPDATE: A grim set of official figures today on deaths means my estimate of the number of people in the UK who have died since mid March linked to coronavirus is
97,700
After a recent acceleration, UK is on course to hit 100,000 by Saturday
1/
Patterns of bank holidays around the end of the year add to uncertainty, but I have been cautious and there has been a recent
inflection point in excess deaths in the data across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Excess deaths rose from mid Dec
2/
Excess deaths had been lower than deaths in hospitals for the whole of the second wave, but in the past two weeks that has no longer been the case.
It suggests fewer people dying of Covid-19 were particularly vulnerable and would have probably died anyway.
3/
What to make of 1,325 deaths within 28 days of a postive Covid test today
A record on this measure
1) It's bad
2) With 40% not in hospitals, suggests a rising crisis in people's homes and care homes again - that's really bad...
But
3) It does need to be put in the context of excess deaths which are running at about 300 a day up to Christmas
4) And since the daily figure was a severe underestimate of the spring peak, this is not a record yet. Excess deaths peaked at about 2,000 a day in April
Don't let the more modest excess deaths so far fool anyone into thinking this is mild or like a bad flu year
Since October there have been 19,000 excess deaths in England and Wales. In the last big flu season (2017-18), there were 7,762 in the same period.
After the latest official figures of UK deaths, the latest estimate of the number of excess deaths since mid March across the UK is
86,000
This is a depressing and very high number, but the latest trends are interesting and have some more positive elements
1/
Of this estimate 82,500 have been registered with 3,500 estimated to have occured since the latedt data which runs to 18 December
Interesting facts:
The daily pattern of excess deaths has not accelerated yet even though case numbers have since the end of the November lockdown
There are now 50% more deaths reported by the government & on death certificates than excess deaths in corresponding periods (note December here is not the full month)
This means:
- testing is working now
- Some of those dying with Covid would have died anyway